Unity Centre of Positive Living

I went to the only Unity church left in Sydney now, the Unity Centre of Positive Living in Crows Nest. There were only 4 of us in attendance, but it was a lovely morning spent in prayer and uplifting quotes, affirmations, readings and music. Like all small churches in Australia, this one struggles just to keep its doors open these days, but they remain steadfastly positive (as their theology demands they do). I agreed with the Centre's wonderful minister, the Rev. Mary-Elizabeth Jacobs, when she said that it is important for such institutions to remain open and available. They provide a living link to the past and a place of refuge if people ever decide to go back to old-fashioned communal worship.
In terms of the history of self-help, Unity is very important. The church was started by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, who based their eccentric metaphysical readings of the bible and their belief in the transformative power of the spoken word on the writings of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. Quimby had also inspired Ernest Holmes (founder of the Church of Religious Science, which was where Louise Hay did her training) and Mary Baker Eddy, his most controversial pupil. Quimby himself was more of a mental healer, and most people seem to say that he was an atheist. Bizarre how his ideas spawned so many churches!

Unity is one of the most influential of the New Thought schools of philosophy, and Unity churches in the US have become something of a locus for the latest trends in self-help and motivation, regularly hosting speaker such as Wayne Dyer and Cheryl Richardson.
Unity Churches posit themselves as Liberal Christian, but their exceedingly metaphysical interpretations of the Bible as a symbolic text puts them well outside any orthodox reformed church tradition. Their liberalism extends to an embrace of other religions and schools of thought, as well as an emphasis on personal growth, a new-agey concept of peace and harmony and a belief in the power of affirmations and positive thought.